An Innovative Program for Pavement Reliability
Iowa State University-hosted National Concrete Pavement Technology Center (CP Tech Center) and research partners have secured the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Subcommittee on Materials approval of “Performance Engineered Mixtures (PEM) for Concrete Pavements”—a provisional standard offering alternatives to prescriptive specifications. Transportation agencies and industry stakeholders will join a five-year Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) pooled-fund program to implement concepts in the standard.
Follow-through activities will ensure states evolve their concrete pavement specifications and position contractors to develop mixtures equal to performance needs in specific environments. The PEM program is designed to provide the tools for agencies to specify, and contractors to deliver, the concrete mixtures that reliably and sustainably meet the needs for concrete infrastructure. The FHWA program will include training and assistance—from design through construction of concrete pavements—and cover such topics as:
- Identifying critical properties based on project location
- Selecting tools to monitor compliance
- Conducting new tests properly
- Developing suitable mixtures while improving their sensitivity to batching and construction processes and reducing financial and environmental impacts.
Stakeholders from coast to coast and border to border will benefit from the PEM program. It gives an agency the freedom to customize a specification to its own climatic zone, whether it is cold, humid, or arid. Work under the PEM program is planned in three steps:
- Develop a guide specification (complete)
- Implement technologies currently available (starting)
- Refine existing and develop new test methods (starting)
The PEM program can improve the reliability of concrete mixtures to ensure that long-life pavements are delivered. It is accomplished by assessing concrete by measuring the identified properties controlling concrete mixture performance … by measuring the things that matter. The PEM program is a bold plan designed to improve concrete pavement durability. It can be successful only with the participation of both agencies and contractors.
Additional information on “Performance Engineered Mixtures for Concrete Pavements” can be obtained from:
Peter Taylor, Director-Concrete Pavement Tech Center (CPTech Center) | E-mail: ptaylor@iastate.edu
For the 2-page brochure titled “Performance Engineered Mixtures Program” from the CP Tech Center, please click on image above, or go to: https://www.concretepavements.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/PEM-Brochure-Final_3-10-17MarchArticle.pdf.
For the entire “Concrete Products” article, please go to: http://concreteproducts.com/news/10303-performance-underpins-aashto-provisional-standard-for-pavement-mixtures.html#.WNNXCxiZP-a.
For the ISCP pre-publish article, please go to: https://www.concretepavements.org/2017/02/28/aashto-publication-coming-advancing-pem/.